


Can I ask you something?

by bioloyg



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Study, Derek Hale POV, Feelings, First Kiss, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, it's basically a lot of people commenting on Stiles, outside pov, sort of - it has direction but it's open ended, sterek, tiny fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 19:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5176388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bioloyg/pseuds/bioloyg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How would you describe Stiles Stilinski?</p><p>Jacob Frankhouser: He’s kinda loud, not so much vocally anymore – he used to talk a lot – but like, his presence. There’s something striking about him, like you can’t help but notice him. Especially with all those bruises he comes in with. I swear Finstock is running them hard in Lacrosse this year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can I ask you something?

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for some insensitivity from a character that basically suggests Stiles committed tw: suicide.  
> The questions in bold where random names of students follow shortly after are basically from a police officer or some other law enforcement officer. Otherwise they're from Stiles to Derek.
> 
> This story is basically the product of:  
> \- my inability to sleep  
> \- my inability to finish a different fic I'm working on that I should already have finished  
> \- this post I read about how other people at school must view Stiles, how he is and all that. It kind of became a weird character study sort of and a way for me to hash out some different writing techniques I guess.
> 
> unbeta'd, enjoy <3

**How would you describe Stiles Stilinski?**

**Samantha Thomas** : Uh, I don’t know. He’s kind of, mysterious, y’know? I mean sure everyone knows who he is, but we don’t know much about him. He’s always coming into school with new bruises and cuts. **_She looks down and whispers to herself,_** I wonder if he’s part of some fight club. **_She looks back up quickly, eyes wide,_** Don’t tell anyone I said that.

 **Jacob Frankhouser** : He’s kinda loud, not so much vocally anymore – he used to talk a lot – but like, his presence. There’s something striking about him, like you can’t help but notice him. Especially with all those bruises he comes in with. I swear Finstock is running them hard in Lacrosse this year.

 **Ariana Blake** : Weird. The kid’s the son of the sheriff. You think that’d make him some sort of douche that abused his power, but instead he’s all reserved and creepy. Looks like he never gets a wink of sleep. I don’t know man, s’none of my business.

**How would you describe Stiles Stilinski’s friend group?**

**Caleb Trudell** : *snorting* Small. The dude doesn’t talk to that many people. I mean, most of his friends are crazy popular, but there’s only a few of ‘em. I don’t even know why they’re friends with him ‘cause they’re way out of his league. 

 **Krystal Mattson:** He used to have a ton of friends, but then his mom died and he kinda… he got closed off. **_They rub their arm_** _,_ I don’t blame him, that’s kind of a hard thing to come back from. And on top of that a ton of his friends keep dying. The poor guy’s probably tired of trying. *sighing* We used to be good friends in elementary.

 **Mercedes Gutierrez:** His friends are weird. All of them are… suspicious.

 **In what way?**  

 **Mercedes Gutierrez:** They’re always missing school at the same time, disappearing for days on end, and no one ever questions it. I swear they’re in some sort of cult. Especially since half their friends die like every school year. I’m pretty sure Stiles is like their leader, either him or Scott. Everyone kinda follows their lead. I tend to stay away from them though. I don’t trust them.

**Have you ever seen Stiles Stilinski with anyone suspicious?**

**Christine Richards:** Pfft, all the time. All of his friends are sketchy. I’m pretty sure the administrators saw Lydia Martin on the school cameras with a Molotov cocktail one time, and she’s the most normal of them all.

 **Did you say a Molotov cocktail?**

**Christine Richards:** Yeah, the exploding bottle things. They never did anything though – she probably had Jackson’s dad on her side for that. This school reeks of cover ups.

 **Johnathan Carter** : Hmm. There _was_ this one time I saw him with Derek Hale. Derek’s got bad news written all over him to be honest. He’s got the fast black car, the leather jacket, and I’d say I’m stereotyping him any other day but the guy was charged for his own sister’s murder. Sure he was cleared, but what made him a suspect in the first place, huh? Food for thought man. 

 **Timothy Karbowski** : The town vet… Dr. Dean? Dalton?

**Dr. Deaton?**

**Timothy Karbowski** : Yeah! That guy. He was good friends with the Hale family, and they were a pretty odd bunch from what my dad tells me. And besides that, what’s a kid like him doing at a vet’s office after hours? It’s not like he has a dog. Although there was that black one…

**What were _you_ doing around there after hours?**

**Timothy Karbowski** : *startled from thoughts* Listen man… We’re not talking about me. I live over there, okay.

**What reason do you think Stiles would have for leaving town?**

 **Samantha Thomas** : To get away from someone probably. I’m assuming that’s the reason he always had all those bruises. Maybe he tried to get out of a gang or something. **_She pauses,_** Wait. I don’t think he was in a gang or anything. Like, maybe a gang was after him. His dad _is_ the Sheriff after all. Please don’t tell anyone I said he was in a gang – he seems like a pretty cool guy – I just don’t know much about him.

  **Mercedes Gutierrez** : Ha! You think he skipped town? I’m like 90% sure he offed himself for that cult he’s in or whatever. Notice how his other friends aren’t around either? I’m telling you, the dude was in a cult, now the cult is dead. Maybe we’ll finally get some peace around here.

 **Timothy Karbowski** : How would I know? Look, all I’m gonna say is that this town has been pretty weird since like three years ago. Tons of people have been dying and some crazy shit has been happening. **_A teacher tells him to watch his language and he rolls his eyes. He leans in to whisper,_** I wouldn’t be surprised if all that stuff stops happening now that he’s gone. All that bad juju seemed to follow him around. Who’s to say he’s not the one that was causing it? **_He leans back and clears his throat,_** But you didn’t hear that from me alright? I don’t even know a Stiles Stilinski.

~

 **Why did you agree to take me away? Why did you believe me when no one else did?**

Derek looks at the human in his bed carefully for a moment before making the decision to sit down beside him. Stiles sits up and the sheet slides down his bare chest slowly, catching and stopping at his waste.

To be honest, Derek has asked himself this same question a few times. Why _did_ he help Stiles? Why does he always gravitate back towards him? He lets out a sigh and says, “Because I know what it’s like to be left with no choice, to fight so hard and long that the only option left is to kill so that you can make it to the next day.”

Stiles raises his eyebrows. “You think that was my only option?”

“I _know_ that was your only option.”

The human narrows his eyes. “How? How can _you_ , someone who’s only known me for a maximum of three-ish years, know with such certainty that I didn’t have any other choice?”

Derek stares into Stiles’ lion-like eyes and gives him a wry smile, trying not to laugh. “You’re too much like your father to have killed someone for sport.”

“I killed Allison, didn’t I?”

He flinches, and god does he wish he didn’t because Stiles probably picked up on it. Derek rubs a hand down his face to wipe the slate clean. “That wasn’t you.”

“Wasn’t it, though?” Stiles pulls the sheet closer to his chest, tries to hide himself away.

“No,” Derek replies shortly. “That wasn’t you. That was nothing like you.”

Stiles bites his lip and then lets it go with a big sigh. “I feel – I feel wrong. I don’t feel like myself anymore, Derek. And this just… it made it worse. Am I a murderer? Am I the bad guy?”

“No.”

When Derek doesn’t elaborate Stiles narrows his eyes. “That’s it? You’re just gonna say no and leave it there.”

He stands up and grabs the mug at the bedside. “There’s nothing else I need to say. You aren’t the bad guy, and I shouldn’t have to elaborate on why that is. Have you done some questionable things, sure. But, are you the bad guy? No. You’re not.” With that he leaves the room and heads for the kitchen.

~

**Do you… Do you trust me?**

The wolf looks up from where he was reading his book. The question isn’t entirely out of left-field, but he was actually expecting it sooner, not right now. He expected to hear it on the car ride back to his house. He puts the book down and tries to remember the answer he had rehearsed the night he drove to get Stiles, but he can’t, so he just says, “Yes.”

Right as Stiles says, “It’s okay if you don’t I was just –” He adjusts his stance and lets his arms fall from where they were crossed over his chest. With his shield down Derek can see how nervous he is.

“You trust me?”

“I do,” Derek sighs. It’s already out there, and he doesn’t want to take back the words, but he does kind of want to get this over with. “I have for a while now.”

Stiles makes some kind of irritated grunt. “And when were you gonna tell me?”

“I thought you already knew.”

“No! How was I supposed to?” Stiles all but whines.

The wolf rolls his eyes. “I picked you up and brought you to my house. My house no one else knows about. I thought that if it wasn’t evident before, it was when we got here.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Derek echoes in confusion. “Because you’ve proven yourself worthy of it.”

“You sound like a fuckin fortune cookie when you say it like that,” Stiles grumbles, sitting down next to him.

Derek levels him with a look. “I _meant_ that you’re trustworthy.”

“Yeah, thanks for telling me what being worthy of your trust means, but that doesn’t give me the _why_.”

“Maybe I don’t have the why. Ever thought of that?” Derek counters. “I can’t put an exact time or date on it, Stiles. I just know that at some point I realized I didn’t have to watch my back around you, you had it for me.”

Stiles sinks back into the couch and lets out a deep breath before whispering, “Okay.” He turns to Derek. “I trust you too, by the way.”

“I know.”

~

 **How long are you gonna let me stay here?**

_Forever._ That’s Derek’s immediate response. Luckily, he doesn’t say that out loud. He wants to though. Stiles has been in his personal living space, in his _bed_ , for three weeks. Derek hasn’t been in that bed with him, but he’s sure as hell thought about it. Derek doesn’t just trust Stiles, he cares about him. At first it was on a platonic level, but something in Stiles’ eyes sparked a fire in him that he can’t tame. It’s all been downhill since Mexico, really.

“As long as you need to.” Is what he chooses to say. He thinks it’s a pretty good answer, it still fits in the fact that he’d let Stiles stay here indefinitely but makes it Stiles’ choice.

Stiles lifts his nose up, as if he can smell the deference of choice Derek just made. “So if I wanted to stay here for a year?”

Derek lifts an eyebrow at that. He highly doubts Stiles could make it a year without seeing his father or Scott, no matter how upset with Scott he is. “If you think you could survive for a year without your friends, sure.”

“I have you don’t I?”

His heart skips a beat and he clears his throat to cover up the lapse in sound, even knowing Stiles couldn’t have heard it. “I _do_ live here.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Stiles responds quickly. Derek can tell he’s locked onto something, sometimes he swears Stiles is a better hunter than any wolf. The human gets closer and closer to Derek until he’s at his side in the kitchen.

“How long would you let me stay, Derek?” His breath sends shivers down Derek’s spine.

“I already told you.”

Stiles leans against the counter so he can look Derek in the eyes. He hates how good Stiles has gotten at reading him. “I want you to give me your answer. Don’t take the out by leaving it up to me.”

Derek sets the potato and peeler in his hand down and braces himself on the counter. “I will let you stay as long as you need to stay here. If that’s only one more week, okay. If it’s a year, fine.”

“But how long do you _want_ me here?”

Derek looks up at him. He hates the way that’s phrased. It’s dangerous territory for him to be entering, there’s no viable out. As more and more time passes he finds there’s only one answer he wants to give, even if it means he’s laying himself on the line. “I want you to stay. I don’t know how long, there are things you need to finish for yourself, but I want you to stay.”

Stiles’ eyes brighten, but he asks one more thing, “Why me, Derek?”

 _Fuck it_ , he thinks, he already confessed one part why not go for another? “You’re the only one who looks back to see if I’m okay.”

Inching closer, Stiles says, “Someone has to.”

“Doesn’t mean it has to be you.” Derek looks down at Stiles’ lips, and that’s the exact moment he loses. But maybe he’s not losing.

“Maybe I want it to be me.”

They meet in the middle, surprisingly enough. When Derek allowed himself to imagine this, he always pictured Stiles leaping into his space, but that’s not what he does at all. He gives Derek the choice, he gives Derek the chance to back out. Except this time, he doesn’t. He allows himself this simple pleasure. He allows himself to trust Stiles and fall into the warm press of his body.

Stiles’ lips are soft, a minor contrast to his coarse cheeks that haven’t been shaved in a day. He kisses Derek like he’s looking for answers, his tongue imploring and gentle, but insistent and unrelenting at the same time. First his hands are on Derek’s shoulders, and then they’re traveling up up up to his neck, to his face, then finally his hair. The human tugs him back by his hair gently and stares into his eyes, waiting for Derek to object maybe, but when the wolf says nothing he leans back in.

At the last moment he hesitates again, letting Derek close the distance between them, and he does. He kisses Stiles like he’s drowning in the pool again, with full knowledge that Stiles is saving him because he cares, and not because he _needs_ Derek. And even if he does it’s not in a malicious way now, maybe it wasn’t back then. He drags Stiles into his arms anyway and keeps him close.

The conversation between their bodies is delightful, which isn’t a word either of them would’ve used ordinarily, but it fits here. They fit. Derek takes the chance to pull back and uses it to bury his face in Stiles’ neck. He can’t help the contented sigh that escapes him, but he’s not embarrassed when it does. Stiles smells anxious here, which Derek has come to attribute to Stiles’ basal scent, but he also smells happy.

Derek’s not sure how he knows that, it’s not a smell he gets from the human often, but it’s so strong and new that he doesn’t think there’s anything else it could be.

“Do you want this?” He asks, still confused by the scent of contentment clinging to Stiles’ skin at the moment.

Stiles nods. “Yes. Yeah.”

Derek drags his lips against Stiles’ neck causing a row of goosebumps to raise in his wake. “What exactly is it that you want?”

“You,” Stiles answers as he lets out a shaky breath.

~

 **Do you think I should go back?**

Derek looks down at where Stiles is smushed against his chest. Something inside him settles knowing this shirt will smell like sleepy, happy Stiles. He brushes his fingers through the spark’s hair and lets out a deep breath. “Your dad probably has half the state of California looking for you.”

Stiles looks up and frowns. “I told him not to look for me.”

He snorts. “And you think he listened?”

The human shrugs. “S’hoping he would.”

“I _know_ he's looking for you. He loves you, Stiles. At the end of the day, no matter what you did, he’ll always love you.”

The human laughs and rolls his eyes. “There’s no way you can know that. I though that same thing about Scott.”

Derek readjusts himself in bed and turns on the lamp beside them. “Scott didn’t watch your mother give birth or change your diapers Stiles. He hasn’t been with you since day one, as much as you like to say he has, nor does he make up half of you. Your dad _made_ you, and he cares about you. I see it every time he looks at you.”

Something he said must strike a chord in Stiles because the self-deprecating smile slides right off his face. The spark looks down and rests his head against Derek’s chest again. “I don’t know if I deserve that.”

He rolls his eyes and nudges Stiles again. “Look at me.”

“What?”

“Cut it out.”

“Excuse me?” Stiles balks, scrunching his eyebrows.

Derek combs his fingers through Stiles’ hair again. “You are _not_ a bad person for defending yourself when no one else did. You are human, you are allowed to make mistakes, and even though this one seems huge in comparison to some others your father isn’t going to stop loving you. And you aren’t any less worthy of his love because of it.”

Stiles frowns. “I think that’s the longest string of kind words you’ve ever used on me.”

“You’re an idiot.”

He smirks. “See, that’s more believable.”

Derek pushes him into the bed and turns off the light, stubbornly unwilling to smile even though the way Stiles is laughing makes him want to.

~

**Do you think Stiles Stilinski has anything to hide?**

**Samantha Thomas** : I don’t know. I don’t think so…

 **Jacob Frankhouser** : Doubt it, he was a pretty open book when I had him in Econ.

 **Ariana Blake** : So what if he does, don’t we all? How much could a high school senior have to hide?

 **Caleb Trudell** : Probably has a shit ton of money. That’s the only way he got Lydia Martin to be friends with him.

 **Krystal Mattson** : No. He’s a good kid.

 **Mercedes Gutierrez** : I’m telling you, he’s in some freakish cult.

 **Christine Richards** : Some keys to the school probably.

 **Johnathan Carter** : Nothing I’d know about, beside the fact that he was hanging out with Derek Hale. His dad probably wouldn’t like that. I wouldn’t if he was my kid.

 **Timothy Karbowski** : Some weird magic power or a voodoo doll, probably.


End file.
